Anybody home? Pacific island of Niue hit by exodus

ALOFI, Niue >> It was a
school once, but there are no children here anymore. The lonely
building on this remote Pacific island now contains only a punching bag
that someone has strung from the classroom rafters, and a note scrawled
on the chalkboard in Niuean: "Keep this place clean," it says, "so it
stays beautiful."

While much of the world worries about how it
will accommodate rapidly growing populations, some islands in the
Pacific face the opposite dilemma: how to stop everybody from leaving.

The
population decline on Niue, a lush coral atoll about the size of
Baltimore, has been steady and relentless. In the 1960s, there were more
than 5,000 people living here; today, there are fewer than 1,600.
Fifteen times as many Niueans, some 24,000, now live across the ocean in
New Zealand, 1,500 miles away.

The stories, songs and language that developed into the Niuean culture over more than 1,000 years are at risk of vanishing.

Speedo
Hetutu, 54, attended the old school in the town of Avatele before it
was abandoned and later used for workouts. There used to be six primary
schools on the island; now there is only one. Other buildings where
people used to work, pray or live now sit empty and in disrepair.

"People wanted to go away to look for a better life," Hetutu says. "People are still searching."

Other
Pacific islands face similar struggles. The CIA estimates the
population of the Cook Islands is declining by 3 percent per year, a
rate second only to war-torn Syria.

Tokelau and American Samoa are
also losing significant numbers of people. Even on archipelagos like
Samoa and Tonga where the population is steady, people are abandoning
the outer islands and moving to the main towns, where they can find
better jobs, education and health care.

The exodus from Niue has
been particularly acute because of its connection with New Zealand. Niue
is self-governing but in free association with its wealthier neighbor
to the south, and Niueans are automatically New Zealand citizens.

While
that relationship has lured away thousands of young Niueans, it has
also paid the bills for those who have remained. New Zealand has helped
establish a $44 million trust fund and gives annual aid that amounts to
about $10,000 per resident, helping fund the government work that
accounts for most of the island's jobs. Some Niueans living abroad send
back remittances.

Many of those who left had goals that were
simply too big for the island. Professor John Connell, a South Pacific
expert at the University of Sydney, recalls speaking with a nurse who
specialized in neonatal care and had returned for her father's funeral.

"There
was no point in her being in Niue," Connell says. "She could only be
there if she was prepared to lose her high-powered skills, and she
didn't want to do that."

Niueans see New Zealand as a land filled
with opportunity, says the Rev. Falkland Liuvaie, 52, a Presbyterian
minister who moved to its capital, Wellington, seven years ago.

He
delivers a weekly sermon in both Niuean and English which he says gives
many expats their only opportunity to listen to their language. He says
for the first few years he gave his services only in Niuean, until he
realized many people had difficulty understanding him.

The oral
traditions that were once strong on the island are in danger of
disappearing, he says. He remembers as a young boy going into his
grandfather's bedroom at 5 in the morning, before he went to work, to
hear him tell stories about fishing and working in the bush.

"It's
really hard. The more you stay away from home, the more you embrace
other cultures, especially the Western culture," he says. "There's
nothing much you can do about it."

Yet on Niue there is a sense of
optimism, a belief the exodus might finally be halting. That's thanks
to more tourism money coming in and a renewed sense of national pride.

Roy
Pavihi, 26, is part of a youth group that's learning to make canoes,
using traditional tools like chisels and modern ones like electric
planers. He works from a building near the old Avatele school, where it
seems the roosters never stop crowing. He says he thinks the project is
encouraging people to stay.

"We need to follow the skills of our forefathers," he says. "Our village was renowned for fishing and canoes."

It's
a way to keep the old knowledge alive, and comes with a bonus: catches
of wahoo, tuna and mackerel for those who master the vessels.

One
person who was never tempted to leave is Maihetoe Hekau. At 73, she
remembers when families had little or no paid work, and instead tended
their plantations, raising taro, tapioca and bananas.

A Niuean
proverb has it that if you keep your bush knife sharp -- or stay
motivated -- you will clear yourself a bigger plantation.

Although
she attended high school in New Zealand, Hekau says she always loved the
relaxed lifestyle on Niue, and figured it was the best place to raise a
big family.

How big? She laughs, embarrassed to say. More than 10? Yes, she says, more than 10.

These
days, she says, she uses a tablet computer to keep in touch with her
children, most of whom live on the island. In 2003, Niue became the
first country to offer all residents free Wi-Fi, one of several
technological upgrades that islanders say make the isolation easier to
cope with.

New Zealand is gradually reducing its aid to Niue,
arguing that its contributions to the trust fund and its investments in
tourism are helping the country become more self-sufficient.

This
year, most Niuean government workers had their five-day work weeks
reduced to four days at the same pay. The government says it helps
people spend more time in their communities, while critics say it was
because the budget is stretched and there was no money for promised
raises.

Niue Premier Toke Talagi remains bullish on his country's future.

"I
know that some people tend to look at us and say, 'Well, you're not
viable,'" he says. "You need to define exactly what you mean by that. We
were viable before anybody else came here. We were independent before
anybody else came here."

"Our task at the present moment is to use
tourism to try to create opportunities so that people in New Zealand,
or anywhere around the world that Niueans are living, will consider Niue
again as a place for them to come back and live," he says.

Niue
government figures indicate about 7,000 people visited the island last
year, double the number from six years earlier. Air New Zealand this
year scheduled extra flights during the Southern Hemisphere winter
tourist season.

Connell remains skeptical about the
power of tourism to reverse Niue's population loss. He says the island's
elevated, rocky coastline means it lacks the sandy beaches many
holidaymakers seek. He says the tourists he met there tended to be
people sailing the world, hardy backpackers or those trying to tick off
150 countries from their "bucket list."

Mark Blumsky, a former New
Zealand businessman and politician who runs several tourism-related
enterprises, is more optimistic. He moved to the island permanently
after marrying a woman he met during a diplomatic posting there.

He
says the lifestyle is remarkable. Take the jailhouse, located on one
side of the golf course. The last inmate, in trouble for arson, spent
his time tending the golf greens and improving his handicap before being
released a year or two back, Blumsky says.

He says there are stunning coastal walks, opportunities to see humpback whales and plenty of swimming holes.

It
would be unusual, but not unprecedented, for an island's population to
simply pack up and leave. Connell says one of the more famous cases was
St. Kilda, off the west coast of Scotland, where in 1930 the last 36
islanders requested evacuation to the Scottish mainland.

He notes
there are examples of places that have survived despite predictions they
would not, including the Pitcairn Islands, home to about 50 people.

"It's far too early to write off Niue," Connell says. "But it has to be at risk."

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